The validity and measurement equivalence of a brief safety climate questionnaire across casual and permanent workers. (March 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Summers, D.; Harries, J.; Kirby, N.; Sarris, A.
• Is Part Of: Safety science. Volume 159(2023)
• Publication Date: 2023-03
• Subjects: Safety assessment -- Safety climate -- Leading indicator -- Nordic occupational safety climate questionnaire; Industrial accidents -- Periodicals; Accident Prevention -- Periodicals; Safety -- Periodicals; Travail -- Accidents -- Périodiques; 363.11
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ssci.2022.106034
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0925-7535

Abstract

Highlights: Early and regular identification of safety concerns is key for accident prevention. Brief safety climate measure implemented across permanent and casual workers. Optimal dimension structure of brief safety climate measure is assessed. Construct validity, external validity, concurrent validity, measurement equivalence, and benchmarking capabilities of brief measure are supported. Abstract: Background: Safety climate is an effective leading indicator of safety incidents and accidents. However, frequently safety climate measures are only employed in times of crisis rather than for regular monitoring to identify and remediate safety issues before becoming critical. Objective: This study aimed to validate a 24-item version of the 50-item Nordic Occupational Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50) that was developed for use as a regular monitoring tool. Method: Analyses undertaken included confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and assessments of construct validity, external validity, concurrent validity, measurement equivalence, and benchmarking capabilities. CFA to examine external and construct validity included a combined sample of disability support workers and hospitality employees (N = 474), an independent sample of students in casual employment (N = 122), and employees from a vocational education and training (VET) organisation (N = 539). Concurrent validity was assessed by comparing correlations between the 50-item and 24-item versions of the NOSACQ with health and wellbeing outcome variables. External validity of the NOSACQ-24 was further established using the casual student workers and a sample employees from the VET organisation (N = 53). Paired samples t-tests examined the safety climate scores for the 50-item and 24-item measures across all participant samples to evaluate the benchmarking capability of the NOSACQ-24. Results: The NOSACQ-24 demonstrated a comparable factor structure to the NOSACQ-50. External, construct, and concurrent validity for the NOSACQ-24 were largely supported, as were measurement equivalence and benchmarking capabilities. Conclusion: Use of the NOSACQ-24 is supported, and future applications are discussed.